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2 WOMEN MATTER.
CHAIRPERSON’S MESSAGE
Dear Member,
Greetings from CII IWN and the National Committee
on Women Empowerment. This year, when I started
my role as the chairperson of this committee, one of
the primary objectives in our mind was to
mainstream gender into the work happening across
CII. Women are a part of the society and therefore
initiatives happening across sectors and on various
issues need to consider women in their design,
planning and execution as opposed to restricting
inclusion only to stand alone initiatives that cater
only to women. It was our attempt, even as we
brought together members for the National
Committee to have representation from various
sectors, civil society and Think tanks. I am glad to
say that we have a prestigious and committed
committee in place and our regional IWN chapters
are rearing to go.
Each year, the National Committee on Women
Empowerment along with IWN ideates on how to
push forward the objective of inclusion of women.
As this year began, we consciously decided to focus
our efforts on a few areas and activities that directly
impact women participation in the workforce
including:
Enhancing participation of women in the
Agriculture Sector: Agriculture employs 80-100
million women in India. To focus on agriculture
therefore becomes a natural choice. Along with the
CII Committee on Agriculture, our committee hopes
to look at equipping women agri-entreprenuers with
requisite skills especially in food processing.
2 universities in Coimbatore and Nashik have
been identified to pilot training modules on
entrepreneurship for the benefit of women
students.
Capacity building of industry to facilitate
inclusion of women: The committee was
convinced about working with the corporates to
increase their capacity to include and retain
women, while helping them to grow as the
committee plans to launch multiple pilot
initiatives with the first one already initiated in
Kerala. 8 participating companies have already
begun to make small strides in the direction of
being more inclusive.
The pilots will also develop and test “back to
work” initiatives to address one of the biggest
hurdles to women continuing in the workspace.
Mentorship and sponsorship models will also be
developed and shared with companies who are
willing to engage in the process. All these
initiatives are an attempt to provide services to
our members who have shown great enthusiasm
about signing the equal opportunity pledge and
demonstrate leadership in the area of inclusion.
While all the above attempts are trying to get
women into the workforce, the committee also
felt that addressing the cause of Safety for
women would play a key role in addressing the
issue of accessibility of jobs for women.
“The pilots will also develop and test ‘back to
work’ initiatives to address one of the biggest
hurdles to women continuing in the workspace.”
3 WOMEN MATTER.
The Southern region, West Bengal and
Jharkhand have already initiated collaborative
efforts with the state police, corporates and other
stake holders to make their cities safe. It is our
hope that as the year follows through, we can
undertake concrete initiatives across all our
chapters to promote safety for women in cities.
Capacity building of women within the
MSME: According to a recent report published
by the Ministry of small and medium enterprises,
20% of the enterprises are owned by women and
all enterprises collectively employ about 24%
women as workforce. CII National Committee
on women empowerment along with CII MSME
committee will focus on including women
entrepreneurs in all the workshops and
roadshows that they conduct with a focus on
Finance and technology.
The IWN network has also been addressed by Ms
Anna Roy, Advisor NITI Aayog- Women
Entrepreneurship Cell to help increase enrolment
to the platform and to provide mentoring to
women entrepreneurs as well.
It will also be our attempt to develop a Gender
Index, which can be used by companies to
conduct a self-assessment and at the same time
also use as a guide to identify areas that they need
to still work on.
The national committee is also in discussion with
the MSME ministry to assist in designing a
program to facilitate women entrepreneurship
across the country.
All of the above is relevant only if it is
measurable. Currently, there is limited data on
what are the statistics of women in the corporate
work space. A study to capture this data was
conducted in 2005 by IFMR on behest of CII. We
hope to update the information by conducting
another research to get the real picture about the
number of women, the policies that help and those
that hinder the participation of women in the work
force.
We have a full year planned in front of us and we
look forward to engaging with each one of you as
we proceed through this journey- our attempt at
making it easier for women to join, stay and grow
in the workforce. Look forward to your thoughts,
inputs, and participation.
Warm regards,
Rumjhum Chatterjee
Chairperson, CII National Committee on Women
Empowerment and IWN
Group Managing Director & Head – Human
Capital,
Feedback Infra Private Limited
4 WOMEN MATTER.
1 Mr R Mukundan Chairman, CII-Institute of Quality Advisory
Council and CII National Committee on
Environment & Managing Director
Tata Chemicals Limited
2 Mr Kiran Karnik Chairman, CII National Committee on
Telecom & Broadband
3 Mr Pradeep Bhargava Co-Chairman, CII MSME Council &
Director
Persistent Systems Limited
4 Mr B Thiagarajan Co-Chairman, CII Agriculture Council &
Joint Managing Director
Blue Star Ltd
5 Mr Vijay Thadani Vice Chairman & Managing Director NIIT Limited
6 Ms Pallavi Tyagi Asia Pacific Talent Acquisition & Vibrancy
Leader
DuPont
7 Ms Sutapa Banerjee Independent Director
8 Ms Radhika
Bharatram
Joint Vice Chairperson Shriram Schools
9 Dr Ranjana Kumari Director Centre for Social Research
10 Mr James Abraham Founder & Director Solar Arise
11 Ms Kanchan Samtani Partner The Boston Consulting Group
CII NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON WOMEN
EMPOWERMENT AND IWN 2018-19
Chairperson
Ms Rumjhum Chatterjee
Group Managing Director & Head – Human Capital
Feedback Infra Private Limited
Co-Chairperson
Ms Bhairavi Jani
Executive Director
SCA Group
5 WOMEN MATTER.
12 Ms Yamini Aiyar President & Chief Executive Centre for Policy Research
13 Ms Kamna Raj
Aggarwala
Chairwoman, IWN NR & Director GDPA Fasteners
14 Ms Agnimitra Paul Chairwoman, IWN West Bengal & Founder Agni Creations
15 Ms Sucharita Basu Vice Chairwoman, IWN West Bengal &
Partner
Aquilaw
16 Ms Bobbeeta Sarma Chairwoman, IWN Assam & Director Sangita Communications Pvt
Ltd.
17 Ms Aneeta Dutta Vice Chairwoman, IWN Assam & Associate
Director
RGVN
18 Ms Rina
Vivekanandan
Chairwoman, IWN SR & Senior Vice
President
Ecesis Care
19 Ms Geetha Panda Deputy Chairwoman, IWN SR & Director &
Global Capability Lead, GSD, Infrastructure
Services
DXC Technology
20 Ms Kashmira
Mewawala
Chairwoman, IWN WR & Head – Business
Development and Chief Ethics Counsellor
Tata Capital Financial
Services Limited
6 WOMEN MATTER.
CII-IWN & BSR Equal Opportunity Initiative
Empowered Women for Better Business
The CII IWN-BSR Equal Opportunity Initiative helps Indian companies to adopt holistic and integrated
women’s empowerment strategies to promote inclusion of women in the workspace. The program will focus
on supporting participating companies’ group-wide development of women’s empowerment strategies and
workplace programs. To do this, the program will combine collective efforts—such as management training
and good practice sharing—with in person and long-distance coaching and guidance. The Pilot programme
under this initiative has been launched in Kerala in May 2018.
How it works
Four Roundtables held between May and December
2018 will equip participating companies with the
method and tools needed to understand why
empowering women is important and what the
organizational benefits are, as well as key equal
opportunity areas.
Through one-to-one support and mentoring
sessions: CII will support the companies between
roundtables to fully unpack topics covered and
implement activities to promote gender parity.
Interaction with Management of the Participating
Companies: With these interactions CII IWN
connects with the senior management with the
objective of engaging with them on the larger
agenda of these companies being champions for the
cause of promoting women empowerment and
parity in their organisations. The first interaction
was held on 10th October 2018 and the next is
scheduled in January 2019.
Key Takeaways from the 4 Roundtables
Roundtable One - 22 May 2018: Kick-off and
presentation of the business case for investing in
Women Empowerment, understanding the usage of
the gender diagnostic tool
Roundtable Two – 11 October 2018: Understanding how does gender manifest itself in
the workplace and possible solutions for the same,
what does gender parity provide, gender sensitive
management
Roundtable Three – 13 November 2018: How to
integrate the Maternity Benefits Act (2017) &
Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act
(2013) into business processes.
Roundtable Four - January 2018: Understanding
the technical requirements of Sexual Harassment of
Women at Workplace Act (2013), and making them
work sustainably.
Participating companies in the pilot include Eastern
Condiments Pvt Ltd, A J Foods, Dhathri Ayurveda
Pvt Ltd, Elite Foods Pvt Ltd, Federal Bank, IBS
Software Services Pvt Ltd, Tata Consultancy
Services, Synthite Industries.
7 WOMEN MATTER.
Article by CII IWN National
Partner 2018-19
Women empowerment at workplace and providing equal opportunities for women is something that Eastern
has strongly advocated since the inception. It has always believed in the potential of women employees not
only as exceptional professionals but also as individuals who can be future economic leaders and architects of
our society. The company fosters a healthy, positive and safe environment for women in all levels of the
organisation. The women at Eastern are presented countless opportunities to discover their inner strengths and
polish their skills. Here they are always motivated to shed all inhibitions and realize their dreams. Eastern has
never hesitated to offer challenging positions to women, to allow them make crucial decisions or to follow
their lead to awe-inspiring success. It endeavours to mould them into the forerunners of future.
As a way of carrying forward this legacy, Eastern has pioneered various initiatives to augment the growth and
development of all women recruits. Some of the women leaders of the organisation were also felicitated for
their remarkable contributions during the launch of these initiatives.
preventing unnecessary roadblocks in their path of
triumph.
2. Balanced Hiring: Talent matters most
“Hiring people is a form of investing”. ‘Hire talent,
not gender’- Eastern’s hiring philosophy. Eastern’s
Talent acquisition strategy is to find specialist
Leaders and future executives by focusing on
competencies. We conduct blind folded screening,
where name and gender of the candidate is not
disclosed during the initial phase of hiring. This
enables unbiased and competency based hiring for all
positions thereby giving equal opportunity
irrespective of the gender.
3. E-Now: Discover self, discover success
E-Now – Eastern Network of Women is an initiative
for channelizing best work place experiences for
women fraternity at Eastern. Eastern takes care of
women by giving required professional guidance,
personal counselling including pre and post
maternity, skill enhancement programs and so on. E-
NoW is a platform for our women employees to
gather and discuss, creating a harmonious, healthy
and safe work environment.
1. Eas-Again: Rebuild your dreams
Taking a break from work can be as liberating as it
is daunting depending on your reasons and
situations. Among the reasons for women quitting
their jobs are Marriage, Re-location, Childbirth and
caring for the elderly. Unfortunately, many women
who interrupt their careers for personal reasons do
so without a plan in mind and hence such a gap is
hard to explain to future employers. Eastern comes
forward with an initiative, ‘Eas-Again’ to welcome
back women who have taken a sabbatical in their
professional journey. Through this initiative, Eastern
looks forward to hire aspiring women who are
willing to pursue their career and help them achieve
their dreams with us.
It is an initiative that safeguards the ambitions of
women planning to re-launch their careers,
“Hiring people is a form of investing. Hire talent, not gender”
8 WOMEN MATTER.
To reverse women leaving the workforce policies
must change behaviour before they change beliefs
-Ms Sutapa Banerjee, Independent Director
Girl students rapidly catching up with boys in India
made headlines a few months ago. They outnumber
boys in post-graduation studies and will soon
exceed them at graduation levels too. Sitting
uncomfortably with that is the alarmingly low
participation of women in the economic sphere:
only 27 per cent of working-age women in India
work. The number fell sharply in the last decade
from 43 per cent to 27 per cent. Nepal and
Bangladesh are way ahead, leaving only the Arab
countries and Pakistan behind India.
In most countries, higher numbers of educated
women have resulted in the improvement of their
societal status and economic participation. What
explains the paradox here?
The World Bank report published last year,
‘Precarious Drop : Reassessing Patterns of Female
Labour Force Participation in India‘, by Luis
Andres and others, concludes that “education
skilling and legal provisions may not be
sufficient… policy prescriptions need to focus on
the acceptability of women working”. While in a
heterogeneous country like India, ‘acceptable’
norms of work may differ based on income, caste,
rural/urban and informal/formal sector, one belief is
all pervasive: women are primarily homemakers
and men breadwinners. Unsurprisingly, the World
Values Surveys of 1990, 1995, 1999 in 25 OECD
countries showed that women were less likely to be
working in countries where a majority agreed with
the statement ‘when jobs are scarce men have more
right to a job than women’.
If historically other countries with the same cultural
bias have been relatively more successful in
overcoming them, are there lessons for us? In a
2015 article, ‘The Weaker Sex’
The Economist highlighted the challenges poorly
educated men in the US and other countries face.
It called for a “change in cultural attitudes”.
“Men need to understand that traditional manual
jobs are not coming back and they can be nurses
or hairdressers without losing their masculinity.”
The answer indeed lies in consistently breaking
stereotypes and discarding biases, but activists,
NGOs or government merely voicing it, is
ineffective. Research in neuroscience states that
deep-seated ‘typical’ beliefs regarding race, caste,
gender and other social categories get embedded
or hardwired in the brain. Inaccurate to start with,
the brain finds it difficult to ‘unlearn’ them even
when the reality has changed. It interprets new
data in a biased manner to confirm originally held
beliefs (confirmatory bias). Such stereotypes
evidently move with a lag, if at all. So, is the
answer then decades of waiting for beliefs and
attitudes shaped by cultural norms to change,
leading to changes in behaviour? Or can change in
behaviour precede change in beliefs?
Research in behavioural design provides evidence
that this is indeed possible and has been
successfully pursued in many countries in areas
ranging from public health, tax collection, organ
donation, and energy savings, to representation of
women on corporate boards.
9 WOMEN MATTER.
Prof Rob Jensen of Wharton School found that not
only did this significantly increase employment
among women, but girls also experienced greater
improvement in health and were more likely to be
in school in these villages.
To implement the Panchayati Raj Act (that
increased women’s participation in local
government from 5% in 1993 to 40% by 2005
above the mandated 33%) villages were chosen at
random making it a ‘natural experiment’ that was
studied widely. In West Bengal villagers exposed
to at least 2 female chiefs overcame their
longstanding bias against women as leaders and
rated male and female
leaders equally. This
included men who
were against voting for women when the quota
was first introduced. Exposure to female chiefs
twice also induced parents to invest in their
daughters’ higher education and made girls spend
less time on household activities and want to defer
marriage. A simple behavioural insight – salience
– just seeing women in power ‘normalised’ it and
induced significant behavior change in people
with extremely traditional mindsets.
Involving women in the decision making process
and in leadership roles, rather than providing
benefits passively, can have far-reaching benefits
across income classes. This invariably entails
setting new norms. Behavioural design, when
complemented by a judicious mix of legislation
and incentives, can go a long way in resetting
norms sooner. Isolated examples in India now
need to make way for a more concerted effort by
government, and the private and non-profit
sectors, to use such behavioural insights in all
policies and practices.
There are ‘behavioural insights’ groups advising
governments in the US, Britain, Australia and
Germany.
In India, some semblance of fluidity in gendered
roles has appeared in pockets of the urban rich and
upper middle-income households. Government and
corporate sector policies, instead of taking steps to
encourage and hasten this permeability, have been
misguided. The flawed legislation increasing
maternity benefits from three to six months is a case
in point. Ostensibly, to ensure that women don’t opt
out of work, it reinforces gendered norms and
unwittingly places women at a disadvantage.
What could have helped
instead is a combination
of maternity and paternity
leave, on a ‘use it or it lapses’ basis, as in the
Nordic countries. The age-old argument is, of
course, that ‘the reality in India is different’. Sure it
is. Except that this law is applicable to the formal
sector employing barely 8 per cent of the working
population comprising the higher earning classes —
precisely the space where a progressive legislation
could have made a dent in gendered norms. A few
successful high potential men availing it could well
become role models for others seeding a new norm
in the workplace. This would have levelled the
playing field at the time of recruitment, made it
easier for women to return to work due to shared
childcare and domestic duties, and cut at the heart
of the patriarchal mindset - just one example where
changing a social norm could have been the easier
and faster way to change behaviour supported by
legislation and organizational incentives.
In the 1990s, when the BPO industry grew rapidly
in India, in a few randomly selected villages, three
years of recruitment services were provided to
women.
“Exposure to female chiefs twice induced parents
to invest in their daughters’ higher education and
made girls spend less time on household activities
and want to defer marriage.”
10 WOMEN MATTER.
In conversation with
Mr Yogesh Kumar
Founder, Even Cargo
A delivery company that breaks stereotypes and hires only women for typically
male dominated jobs
Even Cargo claims to be India’s first women-only e-commerce logistics Start-up which employs around
30 women who are trained to work as delivery women for e-commerce companies in the Indian capital
and Jaipur. The team comprises of young women with an average age of 21 years from underprivileged
backgrounds who are venturing into jobs that have traditionally been inaccessible by them.
Mr Yogesh Kumar, Founder of Even Cargo started the social enterprise in 2016 with the idea of
providing training and employment to women from resource poor communities.
What made you begin an all women employee
start up in a male led profession, breaking gender
barriers?
Inequality and disparity were responsible behind my
decision to start Even Cargo. Many of my
experiences of seeing women struggling on a daily
basis and the helplessness I experienced that I could
do nothing made me embark on this journey. I felt
the need to do something… I quit my job with a
German engineering firm and enrolled in a Master’s
degree in Social Entrepreneurship at the Tata
Institute of Social Sciences. During the course of
my study, I thought of starting a business to meet the
demand of India’s flourishing e-commerce industry
paving the way for logistics players to cater to this
growing business. (The idea was to start a venture
that can challenge gender norms and can help
women reclaim their share of public space, I chose
logistics as it’s a male dominated profession with
minimum representation of women in last mile
logistics, also the e commerce industry is a growing
industry that could give better and more opportunity
for women to grow). I decided to start one that
would hire only women.
Did you face resistance in hiring women
drivers?
Getting clients was the easy part, however
recruiting workers proved to be difficult. We
tried a few non-profit organizations that help
girls from underprivileged backgrounds to get
jobs, however the response was not encouraging.
When we did find prospective employees, we
often met resistance from the women’s parents
as their main concern was whether their
daughters would be safe travelling alone and
interacting with strangers. Others objected to
the dangers of driving a two-wheeler on busy
roads and lanes. Whereas some people were
clueless about what e-commerce was and felt
that delivery was not a girl’s job.
People expect women to be in certain kinds of
jobs. We want to change that. Gender is in fact
at the core of our operations. We want to ensure
women have equal access to public spaces.
This feeling of insecurity which women
experience on a day to day basis of putting
themselves in danger has to go away.
11 WOMEN MATTER.
We’re taking all the precautions we can, of course,
but we want to change the mind-set of how people
see women in public spaces. We can’t always
think of women constantly being in danger. . . . that
is maintaining the status quo, and we need to
change that thinking.
The focus is to overcome the barriers of
unemployment through skill development of
women to increase their participation in the labour
market.
How did you overcome this challenge?
In order to build confidence among the women and
reassure their families about the safety of their
daughters; we took a conscious decision only to
work with companies that deal in women’s apparel
and accessories to limit interactions with men.
How do you tackle the issue of safety for your
women employees on the routes they travel?
We make sure that they are only sent to safe routes.
With the help of the Delhi police and our
customers, we have charted out the routes and pin
codes that are safe for women and these are the
only places they deliver packages to. On an average
our delivery girls deliver 30 - 40 packages which
are no less than their male counterparts.
For any girl who would like to be employed as a
delivery girl with Even Cargo, she has to undergo
four modules of training namely,
A) Two-wheeler driving with Honda Traffic
Training Park
B) Self-Defense with the Delhi Police
C) Introduction to the Logistics Sector with
Amazon
D) Employability Skills (Communication,
Conflict / Stress / Time Management).
Till now, we have trained over 100 girls to ride
two-wheelers. The girls feel much more confident
compared to the difficulty which we faced in
convincing them and their parents to take up the
job.
What has been the experience of the delivery
girls to be employed in this male driven
profession?
Some of the girls are excited about learning to drive
a two-wheeler, others with the economic
independence which they experience, few of them
have been able to enroll back into educational
institutions as they had to discontinue studies due to
financial constraints. Some are happy that they get
to supplement their family income. It’s also
interesting to see the impact they have on the
workspace. We have seen the language in the
godowns improve, the nature of the songs played
change. It’s quite remarkable; the ripple effect
bringing in women has on the larger ecosystem.
What is your vision for the company a few years
from now?
In the coming 10 years, we wish to make corporates
gender inclusive, create more opportunities for
women, thereby, increase their participation in
labour workforce market. Our long term vision is to
create a ‘gender just’ society where women will
have equal opportunity to earn their livelihoods.
13 WOMEN MATTER.
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP PLATFORM
Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) by NITI Aayog, Government of India is a unified
access portal which brings together women from different parts of India to realize their
entrepreneurial aspirations. CII is a partner to this initiative. IWN takes this opportunity to
encourage as many women to register on the WEP online platform wep.gov.in
14 WOMEN MATTER.
LAUNCH OF NEW IWN CHAPTERS
IWN INDORE
The IWN Indore Zone was launched on 6th
September 2018 which coincided with the CII
Leadership Conclave 2018. The learning and
development activities would include peer-to-peer
learning sessions, 100 hours of change
programme for final year and pre final year
students, Personal grooming and communication
skill sessions, Perfect WLB for working women
etc.
Under Health & Wellbeing – Sessions on various
diseases, Spinal health session, Eye & Dental care
awareness and camps would be conducted.
Sessions on PoSH Awareness, Woman Safety
would be organized under Policy & Advocacy.
IWN JHARKHAND
CII launched IWN Jharkhand on 7th September 2018 coinciding
with a session on Women Professionals - Striking a Balance in
Jamshedpur. The session brought together Women Professionals
and entrepreneurs from Jamshedpur and all across Jharkhand to
foster connects for inspiration and growth.
Under the aegis of the three focus areas of IWN – namely
Learning & Development, Health & Wellbeing, Policy &
Advocacy; IWN Jharkhand Chapter will organise relevant
sessions such as - Workshops on Stress Management and
Meditation, facilitating installation of Sanitary Napkin Vending
Machine at Government Schools as part of an awareness and
support campaign about Menstrual Health and Hygiene.
Recently, IWN Jharkhand has conducted a survey on PoSH
among member industry and has plans to organise Workshop on
POSH for MSMEs and awareness programmes on the Women
Entrepreneurship Platform of the NITI Aayog.
15 WOMEN MATTER.
IWN EVENTS
Health Camp, IWN Assam
IWN Tamil Nadu launched IWN Erode on 15th November 2018. A session on Women
Entrepreneurs in 21st Century was organised coinciding with the launch. The session brought
together women professionals and entrepreneurs from Erode to foster connects for inspiration and
growth.
IWN Erode Chapter would be organizing need based sessions such as workshops on communications
skills development, facilitating learning mission to various industries, organise long term sector wise
mentoring programme for women entrepreneurs, awareness sessions on work life balance, etc.
IWN ERODE
Inauguration of Sanitary Napkin Vending Machine &
Incinerator, IWN Jharkhand
Leadership Conclave : Unstoppable, IWN Telangana Member Meet & Session on Financial Planning, IWN Rajasthan
16 WOMEN MATTER.
The Women Empowerment Series : Why Women Should Save and Invest, IWN Delhi
Session on Happiness & Wellbeing, IWN Coimbatore
Session on Women Safety & Security, IWN Kerala An Evening to Inspire, IWN Aurangabad
Leadership Conclave : She Aspires, She Inspires, IWN Andhra
Pradesh
17 WOMEN MATTER.
3rd WomeNation Summit – Celebrating Success, IWN Western
Region
To contribute relevant articles to the e-newsletter / advertisement opportunity, please contact:
Ms Hema James
CII Indian Women Network
98/1, Velachery Main Road, Guindy, Chennai – 600032
Tel : +91- 44 - 42444 555; Fax: +91- 44 - 42444510
E-mail : hema.james@cii.in
https://indianwomennetwork.in/
#REDEFINE – Going Beyond : Redefining Boundaries, IWN Madhya Pradesh
Workshop on Gender Diversity, IWN Pune
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